St Kilda beach

My cousin Michelle arrived from Canada the day after my birthday (at the end of January). She's been staying with my parents, doing lots of sightseeing and job-hunting, but this week we roped her into babysitting for a morning! It was great, I was able to get Gord's visa application done - glad to have that bit of paperwork out of my hair.


The night before (Michelle slept over at our place), we headed down to St Kilda beach. I was blown away when Michelle said it was the first time she'd seen the ocean since she was last in Australia, which was 1991, when she was, I believe, three years old!!! This prompted me to ask Gord if he'd seen the sea when he was growing up, and he said he reckoned the first time he'd seen it was when he went to Vancouver with Shaun when he was twenty! Although he could possibly have seen it on a family trip to BC when he was ten, but he can't remember!


I'm kind of flabbergasted, but I forget that Australia is an island continent, with the majority of the population living in coastal towns and cities. The beach is an intrinsic part of the Australian identity, featured in our history, literature and folk tales. It seems so odd to me that you wouldn't grow up having at least a few holidays to the beach, but I can understand that a prarie family in Canada (and even an Albertan family!) might not make it to the coast all that often. However, it does explain why Gord values living close to the beach, and why he likes the idea that we can head down there pretty much whenever we like. We're kind of averaging once a week at the moment, or Gord certainly is. Piper and I at least made it to the local pool this week...


Anyway, here's a few photos of us with Michelle, on the boardwalk, in front of the iconic Luna Park, and scoffing cake on Acland St. Honestly, Piper ate more of that chocolate cake than Gord did! And given the difference in body size, that's a worry, eh! No wonder she was a bit hyper on the way home! Oh yes, did I mention that's my vanilla slice in the foreground?? Hey, at least I took half of it home!